Upbit review

Upbit is the centre of gravity for crypto in South Korea. Operated by Dunamu and launched in 2017, it dominates the country's market, often handling the large majority of domestic won-denominated trading, with a deep selection of coins paired against the Korean won and some of the lowest fees anywhere.

Cost is a real draw: trading on the won market is just 0.05% per side, well below the 0.1% to 0.6% common elsewhere. The interface is clean, mobile-first and tightly integrated with Korean banking, where a verified bank account is required to deposit won, which doubles as a strong anti-fraud control.

Scale has brought scrutiny. In November 2025, South Korea's Financial Intelligence Unit fined Dunamu around 25 million dollars and imposed a three-month restriction on new customers transferring virtual assets, citing large numbers of customer due-diligence and transaction failures. Dunamu has signalled it may appeal, pointing to past enforcement actions that were overturned in court.

For Korean residents, Upbit remains the default exchange: liquid, cheap and deeply integrated with local rails. For everyone else it is largely inaccessible, as the core service is built around the Korean won and Korean bank verification rather than international users.